one last post for tonight
There are lots of things that I "enjoy." I enjoy eating out in nice restaurants. I enjoy going to the Indy 500. I enjoy this thing called blogging and I enjoy agitating liberals. I enjoy watching sports on TV, and I really enjoy following my #1 and #1A favorite football teams--Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers, and Tony Dungy and the Indianapolis Colts. I enjoy backyard grilling in the summer and "Hondo's World's Greatest Chili" in the winter. I enjoy Q.L.'s BBQ in Muncie, Indiana (the world's greatest BBQ) and I enjoy sitting outdoors and watching baseball being played anywhere, by anybody. Those are the things that I "enjoy."
I love God and I love my family. As I type this, it is way past midnight, and I am still awake because my kids need me. My daughter just got sick (again!!) so I am doing laundry for her. My youngest son (19 months) is on his 3rd round of antibiotics for a sinus/ear infection, so I have been caring for him as well. My oldest son (7) is asleep, although he does have this weird staph infection that requires me to launder a bunch of his stuff. As if that wasn't enough (and, By Golly, don't you think it ought to be?), I am also playing NFL Historian/Video Producer. I recorded all of the Super Bowl hype, as well as the AFC Championship game against the Pats, on the DVR, and now I'm transferring it to tape (sometime later I'll put it on DVD) so that I will have an archive of sorts for my kids to see how the Colts (for cryin' out loud!) actually won the Super Bowl. My wife is at work (she's a nurse) so I'm going solo for a bit. As all this activity goes on way after midnight, I have the opportunity to ponder how in the world it ever came to this!
From 1978 to February of 1994, I was absolutely The King Of The Night Brigade. I had guys that I rolled with and, together, there wasn't a party we didn't crash or a bar we didn't close or a lovely lady we didn't woo with our wiley ways. Live fast, die young, be a good looking corpse---that was the plan. And you know what? I was having a blast! Or so I thought.
God has a way of changing things, whether we seek His help or not. Thirteen years ago, almost to the very day, God hit me with my very own "Damascus Moment." It didn't seem that way at the time, but, in retrospect, what happened to me on February 12, 1994 changed my life just as dramatically as Saul's "Talk To God" moment at Damascus. I was out with the usual suspects, doing the usual things, and ended up in a now-defunct bar called Ike and Jonsey's on Indy's Northside. I was loaded out of my mind when, all of a sudden, a young lady walked up next to me at the bar and started talking to me. Of course, all of the real trashy thoughts and motives jumped right to the top of my mind, but she wasn't having any of that nonsense! We talked for awhile, but she made it very clear to me that, if I ever wanted to see her again, I would need to take her phone number and call her later. I did, but with absolutely no expectations whatsoever that she and I would ever establish any kind of a relationship.
That next Thursday, I called her. Sober now, I wasn't 100% sure that I remembered what she looked like, but I thought, what the heck, I'll meet her for lunch on Sunday (thereby not screwing up a Friday/Saturday night) and, who knows? Maybe we'll have some laughs! At the very worst, I'll only spend a Sunday lunch with her, and then I'll get on with the rest of my very exciting life.
We met for lunch on Sunday, February 20, 1994 at TGIFriday's. We sat down at the table, the waitress came, and we ordered. So far, so good. And then it happened. We started to talk. We talked about our families and our likes and dislikes and our opinions. Truthfully, I don't remember today all of the words we spoke to each other, but I vividly remember how I felt. There was a "lightening bolt moment" for me as we talked where I thought, "Wow! The words she is speaking are the words from my heart! She and I think and feel the same things!" That had never happened to me before. I was "intrigued." I thought, "I need to see this gal again." We made a date for the next day (President's Day) to see each other again. By the end of that day, I was scared and thrilled and bewildered and happy and scared and excited and scared (did I say that I was scared?) and completely discombobulated. What in the world was happening to me? I wasn't looking for a "steady girl", but I felt a need like I had never felt before to keep seeing this girl.
Within a month, I was head-over-heels in love, and my life changed forever. All of a sudden, I didn't want to "roll with the boys." I found myself enjoying quiet evenings with her watching dumb Lifetime movies. Good grief! I proposed to her in 1995 and we married in 1996, and I have never looked back.
I firmly believe that God sent her to me to save my life. I was on the "Highway to Hell", as the song goes, and the only thing that could save me was the love of a good woman, sent to me by God. We have 3 beautiful kids who we adore, and she and I are more in love than we ever have been. Oh, we've had our ups and downs. Marriage is hard, and it's complicated, and the last 11 years haven't all been joy and bliss! I tell you what, though, I wouldn't trade my life for a billion dollars! God has blessed me with the greatest family a man could have, and I am so grateful! At the same time, I feel a tremendous responsibility to lead my family God's way, and to be the father and husband that God wants me to be. There is no greater responsibility, or any greater honor! I also feel a responsibility to make some sort of effort to make this world a little better for the sake of my kids. And that includes "blogging against liberalism."
Well, that's enough! Maybe I'll have more to say on Sunday. Good night!
I love God and I love my family. As I type this, it is way past midnight, and I am still awake because my kids need me. My daughter just got sick (again!!) so I am doing laundry for her. My youngest son (19 months) is on his 3rd round of antibiotics for a sinus/ear infection, so I have been caring for him as well. My oldest son (7) is asleep, although he does have this weird staph infection that requires me to launder a bunch of his stuff. As if that wasn't enough (and, By Golly, don't you think it ought to be?), I am also playing NFL Historian/Video Producer. I recorded all of the Super Bowl hype, as well as the AFC Championship game against the Pats, on the DVR, and now I'm transferring it to tape (sometime later I'll put it on DVD) so that I will have an archive of sorts for my kids to see how the Colts (for cryin' out loud!) actually won the Super Bowl. My wife is at work (she's a nurse) so I'm going solo for a bit. As all this activity goes on way after midnight, I have the opportunity to ponder how in the world it ever came to this!
From 1978 to February of 1994, I was absolutely The King Of The Night Brigade. I had guys that I rolled with and, together, there wasn't a party we didn't crash or a bar we didn't close or a lovely lady we didn't woo with our wiley ways. Live fast, die young, be a good looking corpse---that was the plan. And you know what? I was having a blast! Or so I thought.
God has a way of changing things, whether we seek His help or not. Thirteen years ago, almost to the very day, God hit me with my very own "Damascus Moment." It didn't seem that way at the time, but, in retrospect, what happened to me on February 12, 1994 changed my life just as dramatically as Saul's "Talk To God" moment at Damascus. I was out with the usual suspects, doing the usual things, and ended up in a now-defunct bar called Ike and Jonsey's on Indy's Northside. I was loaded out of my mind when, all of a sudden, a young lady walked up next to me at the bar and started talking to me. Of course, all of the real trashy thoughts and motives jumped right to the top of my mind, but she wasn't having any of that nonsense! We talked for awhile, but she made it very clear to me that, if I ever wanted to see her again, I would need to take her phone number and call her later. I did, but with absolutely no expectations whatsoever that she and I would ever establish any kind of a relationship.
That next Thursday, I called her. Sober now, I wasn't 100% sure that I remembered what she looked like, but I thought, what the heck, I'll meet her for lunch on Sunday (thereby not screwing up a Friday/Saturday night) and, who knows? Maybe we'll have some laughs! At the very worst, I'll only spend a Sunday lunch with her, and then I'll get on with the rest of my very exciting life.
We met for lunch on Sunday, February 20, 1994 at TGIFriday's. We sat down at the table, the waitress came, and we ordered. So far, so good. And then it happened. We started to talk. We talked about our families and our likes and dislikes and our opinions. Truthfully, I don't remember today all of the words we spoke to each other, but I vividly remember how I felt. There was a "lightening bolt moment" for me as we talked where I thought, "Wow! The words she is speaking are the words from my heart! She and I think and feel the same things!" That had never happened to me before. I was "intrigued." I thought, "I need to see this gal again." We made a date for the next day (President's Day) to see each other again. By the end of that day, I was scared and thrilled and bewildered and happy and scared and excited and scared (did I say that I was scared?) and completely discombobulated. What in the world was happening to me? I wasn't looking for a "steady girl", but I felt a need like I had never felt before to keep seeing this girl.
Within a month, I was head-over-heels in love, and my life changed forever. All of a sudden, I didn't want to "roll with the boys." I found myself enjoying quiet evenings with her watching dumb Lifetime movies. Good grief! I proposed to her in 1995 and we married in 1996, and I have never looked back.
I firmly believe that God sent her to me to save my life. I was on the "Highway to Hell", as the song goes, and the only thing that could save me was the love of a good woman, sent to me by God. We have 3 beautiful kids who we adore, and she and I are more in love than we ever have been. Oh, we've had our ups and downs. Marriage is hard, and it's complicated, and the last 11 years haven't all been joy and bliss! I tell you what, though, I wouldn't trade my life for a billion dollars! God has blessed me with the greatest family a man could have, and I am so grateful! At the same time, I feel a tremendous responsibility to lead my family God's way, and to be the father and husband that God wants me to be. There is no greater responsibility, or any greater honor! I also feel a responsibility to make some sort of effort to make this world a little better for the sake of my kids. And that includes "blogging against liberalism."
Well, that's enough! Maybe I'll have more to say on Sunday. Good night!
posted by hondo at 12:57 AM
5 Comments:
That's a great heart felt story Hondo. Thank you for sharing that with us.
Ina all serousness, I would encourage you to re-examine the part about "bloging against liberalism to make the world better."
By all means speak up against what you don't like about liberalism, but you would gain so much more credibility, especially with the liberals, whose views you are trying to change for the better, if you would (1) stop inserting provoking insults (i.e. "mistress Pelosi"), (2) don't spread ms-information (i.e. Pelosi requested her own plane), and (3) give credit where crdeit is due to liberals (i.e. they acheived the first ever woman speaker of the house; surely you agree this is worth celebrating).
Now that you have changed your blog to vet comments before you allow them to post, it will be intersting to see if you vet against just the ridiculous comments like those lately, or if you will also vet against simple criticism of your views simply because they disagree with what you write. We all shall see soon!
I found the part of your comment about gaining credibility with liberals interesting. I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to gain credibility with liberals. Liberals are people who believe that fiction is really true. Liberals can't tell the difference between good and evil or right and wrong. I don't care what people like that think of me. In my experience, the only way to "gain credibility with a liberal" is to succumb to liberalism. I have no intention of doing that. What I will continue to do is to speak the truth, and to show why it's the truth. You can choose to find my thoughts credible, or not, but that won't change what I'm doing.
Part 2 to Liberal Reader-- You also made two other points that I want to respond to.
First, you took issue with me using the word "mistress" in describing Nancy Pelosi. I wondered if anyone would pick up on that! Would you agree with me, liberal reader, that Pelosi's only function as Speaker, at least as far as liberal Democrats are concerned, is to punish George Bush? Would you agree that her only agenda is to whip Bush into submission? Would you agree that Pelosi was selected as Speaker in order to flog conservatives until they just give in to her demands? Hence, "Mistress." This reference may seem offensive, but I think that it accurately illustrates what the Pelosi agenda is.
Second, you talk about how it is worth celebrating that liberals "achieved" the first woman Speaker of the House. No, I am not celebrating. I am too busy laughing at the blatant (and typical) liberal hypocracy on this very topic. If it is so vitally important for women to break through that "glass ceiling," where was all the liberal celebrating over the achievements of Condi Rice? I must have been asleep when you held the party! The truth is that liberals don't care one bit about diversity. Liberals are all about goose-stepping to the party line, and woe to the infidels who dare think an independent thought (just ask Joe Lieberman)! Pelosi's gender is irrelevent to liberals, except as a fresh looking hook that the liberal ideology can be hung on.
Thanks for posting and responding to my comment Hondo.
No, I do not agree with you that Pelosi's function is to punish, whip, or flog Bush or the conservatives. But that is a pretty funny idea. Thanks for the visuals.
Your part 1 answer illustrates my original point. You have an inherent bias against liberals that closes you off to anything positive about us. You said "liberals can't tell the difference between good and evil or right and wrong." Of course we can. We just generally have a different oppinion than you. Making a crazy blanket statement like that takes away from any credibilty to your arguments. If your goal is just to vent about liberalism, then I guess you are doing a good job. But you have the chance to influence reader's thought processes (both conservative and liberal), and you are squandering that opportunity by making your points in the way that you do. It's your blog though, so I suppose you are the one who decides your blog's objective.
I would like to end this comment with a qoute by British philosopher Bertrand Russell: The essence of the Liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment.
In other words Hondo, Liberals could be open to your opinions, and you could change individuals' outlooks (possibly leading to new group outlooks) by fca based arguments without all of the insult-garnishments to your writtings.
Liberal Reader--I respect the tone you used in your latest comment, so I will reply without the insults.
You are 100% correct when you say that I have an inherent bias against liberals. I would never deny that. This bias is based on the experiences I have had over the last 27 years--the time period during which I have actually been aware of my cultural and political surroundings. I heard liberals say, in the late 70's, that America's time had passed, and that we should all just get used to our "national malaise", and the accompanying high taxes. Ronald Reagan disagreed, and he was proven right. Liberals said that we should "engage" the Soviet Union and tear down our military to show them how nice we are. That would make the U.S.S.R. like us, liberals said. Reagan disagreed. He rebuilt our military into the finest in the world. He told the Soviets that THEY had to change, and that we would enforce that change. Liberals called him a cowboy and warned that Reagan was going to be the cause of a nuclear holocaust. Liberals were proven wrong. Liberals say that higher taxes generate more government revenue. Conservatives disagree, and the numbers prove us right. liberals say that raising the minimum wage is good for poor people. Conservatives disagree, and the numbers prove us right. Liberals say that it's OK to murder unborn babies in the name of choice. Conservatives disagree. Liberals say that Iraq is worse off today than they were under Sadaam, and that, in retrospect, Sadaam wasn't so bad. Good grief! The facts are right there for anyone with eyes to see. Liberalism renders a person incapable of telling good from evil or right from wrong. Liberals believe passionately in things that just aren't so. History proves that!
One last point: You say that liberals would be open to my points if I layed off the insults and tried to "just get along." That is one of the most bogus statements that liberals make, and they do make that point quite often. Most liberals will ALWAYS react with anger or hate when confronted with viewpoints that challenge their worldview. Just look at the hate dumped on Joe Lieberman. He's a liberal guy, but dared to think independently of the liberal talking points concerning Iraq, and he was drummed out of the Democrat Party! Liberals don't like to be disagreed with, and it doesn't matter one little bit if that disagreement is phrased politely with a smile, or served up with a side of sarcasm. Liberals will always react the same, and it isn't pretty!
I thank you for your opinion, though!
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